The St. Louis County Library Foundation is pleased to present celebrated legal suspense author Stephen L. Carter for a discussion and signing of his new novel "Back Channel." The event will be held on Thursday, August 7 at 7:00 p.m. at Library Headquarters, 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd.

The program is free and open to the public. Books will be available for purchase at the event from Left Bank Books. Doors open at 6:00 pm; early arrival is highly recommended.

The event is co-sponsored by Maryville University.

From the bestselling author of "The Emperor of Ocean Park" and "The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln," Stephen Carter presents a new novel of terrific suspense and surprise: a brilliant amalgam of fact and fiction about a young black woman on whom the outcome of the Cuban Missile Crisis depends.

October 1962. In Cuba: Soviet ships off-load what intelligence reveals to be nuclear missiles. In Washington, President Kennedy and his advisers are in furious debate over how long they can wait to discover what the Soviets intend before dropping the first bomb. And, in Ithaca, New York, Margo Jensen--a nineteen-year-old Cornell sophomore--is swept up in a "bizarre concatenation of circumstances" that will make of her the "back channel" liaison between Soviet Premier Khrushchev and Kennedy.

Events unfold too quickly for her even to ask "why me?" But the stunning answer is revealed bit by bit as she races from Ithaca to Bulgaria to Washington, D.C., drawn ever more deeply into the crossfire, figurative and literal, of infighting between governmental agencies, both American and Soviet; into the confidence and affection of the president of the United States; into desperate negotiations to avoid nuclear war; and, finally, into the secrets of the extraordinary legacy--of honor and bravery--she inherited from the father she never knew.

Stephen L. Carter is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Yale, where he has taught for almost thirty years. He is also the author of seven acclaimed works of nonfiction, and five bestselling novels. His first novel, "The Emperor of Ocean Park," spent eleven weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.

Program sites are accessible. Upon two weeks notice, accommodations will be made for persons with disabilities. Contact St. Louis County Library by phone 314-994-3300 or visit www.slcl.org.